September 29, 2008

US & CANADA | CANADA | BRITISH COLUMBIA

Lofty Ambitions

By Mark Jolly

Which new ski resort is about to dwarf Whistler?

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Talk is big and ambitions are high as British Columbia edges into ski season. Already blanketed with six centimeters of snow (which fell last week on the first day of fall), Whistler Blackcomb gets a gondola lift December 12 to befit its status as North America’s premier ski resort. Three times longer than the Golden Gate Bridge, Peak 2 Peak will connect Whistler and Blackcomb in just 11 minutes. Which means not just a new time-busting way for powder junkies to enjoy both mountains but a thrill ride in itself: the aerial transfer forms the longest unsupported span in the world.

But none of that should phase BC rival, Revelstoke, which come November 27 will open for its first full season with the view to squarely knocking Whistler off its perch. The new resort, by Mount MacKenzie, has long been regarded as the heli-ski capital of the world, but now, with a $1 billion development, it boasts the longest lift-serviced vertical drop in North America (5,620 feet, which, for those of you who are counting, eclipses Whistler by 487 feet). In fact, when it opens this season, Revelstoke will, it claims, be the only resort in the world offering lift-skiing, cat-skiing, and helicopter skiing right from the village base.

While it may not have quite the same killer gondola views as Whistler, the upstart is about to unveil a new high-speed chairlift, opening up another 1,000 acres of skiable terrain (that’s not counting the half-million acreage of backcountry heli-skiing). And the snowfall is epic: some estimates put Revelstoke’s average at 720 inches per season (compared to Whistler’s 400). The only thing missing, it seems, is a boutique lodging to give the place its requisite cool factor. But that’s also slated to open this season — with the first of three buildings in the Nelsen Lodge complex of luxury condos.